Aiding Artisans

December 14, 2007|By - DEBORAH HORNBLOW

The tsunami of 2004 has long since vanished from the headlines, but many Indonesians whose lives were devastated by that event remain in need.

Fair Winds Trading, a marketing and trade company that imports African and Indonesian craft goods, and Pekerti, the Indonesian People's Folk Art and Handicraft Foundation, teamed up to help - with assistance from a longtime Fair Winds partner, Macy's.

Fair Winds Trading, founded around 2004 to help widows of the Rwandan genocide, was approached to help needy artisans in Indonesia in the aftermath of the natural disaster. The organization joined with the Pekerti foundation, which was founded in Jakarta in 1975 to supplement the incomes of subsistence farmers and rural people through the development and sale of traditional crafts and folk art.

Working together, Fair Winds and Pekerti put to work Indonesian artisans, many of whom were affected by the tsunami, the earthquake and the resulting poverty. They created a line of holiday ornaments, a delightful collection sold exclusively at Macy's.

The ornaments, created in Bali and Aceh, Indonesia, include wooden angels, snow angels, green and red fabric stars, dancing animals, wind chimes and Nativity characters. Typically sold in sets of three or four, they range in price from $20 to $34 per set, with many on sale between $13.99 and $23.80. The ornaments are available exclusively on the Macy's website, www.macys.com/giveback.